Oxygen.ie - The Necks at Whelan's Review

The Necks at Whelan's Review

A live performance by Australian crew The Necks certainly contains an element of brass - in the metaphorical (not musical) sense that is.

A couple of asides, before coming to the performance itself: of the three hours we were in Whelan’s, we heard just over one hour of music, having been made to wait well over an hour from the doors opening to the band appearing on stage (a cynical ploy by the venue perhaps, in order to get punters to spend more cash?).

The musical set was split into two long pieces but an interval, of similar length to each half, dedicated to the band hocking their wares made one wonder how much bang we were getting for our buck – but everybody’s gotta eat, right?

Set up as a traditional jazz trio of piano (Chris Abrahams), double bass (Lloyd Swanton) and drums (Tony Buck), The Necks are anything but conventional when it comes to their musical heritage. In the past they have been described in journalistic shorthand as post-jazz, minimalist, kraut-rock jazz-fusion but they admirably don’t fit into any of these conveniently crafted boxes.

The Necks getting their hair mowed.

Bad camoflage

Performing new material from their latest album Mindset (their 16th long player) they have built their reputation on improvisation, repetition and embellishment of sometimes a single chord or groove that slowly builds in intensity and complexity; and that was precisely what we got.

Their tracks tend to start out quietly with the band discretely pulling out of a familiar driveway, then embarking on a musical journey where the map has been happily chucked out the window, so that we end up on some exotic, expansive and deserted plane of sound – perhaps the musical equivalent of ‘The Bush’ in the Sydney trio’s homeland.

The first piece began with gentle piano and bass interplay, which was offset by percussionist Buck ringing an atmospheric monastic-style bell, and evolved over the next 30 minutes into a meditative, Indian raga-like swirling crescendo with a crashing rolling rhythm provided by the drums, until having reached the musical precipice where you fear everything might topple over, the band pull back just in time to give us a soft landing of melody and ambience.

This picture was taken from a mile away through a hedge.

The first half symbolised all that is good about The Necks, who have incorporated the pleasure of repetition that is in electronica music into their performance – with Abraham’s pulsating shimmering piano chords carrying what seems a heavy Philip Glass influence – to lull the audience into a zone of submission before tweaking the piece ever so slightly as they go along to hold our interest.

However, the second half highlighted the inherent dangers of such an intense performance style, as the piece (again clocking in over half an hour) became a wall of sound, heavily layered, abstract, lacking in melody and ultimately, dull. It may be fun to play but it doesn’t do much for the listener, as the trio verged into territory that could well be a parody of bad jazz.

Some may defend it in the spirit of musique concrete, but it is hard to stand for 30 minutes and listen to such an oblique cacophony and while the crowd roared its approval in an ‘I get it and you don’t’ fashion at the end, I found myself thinking back to when I was a 21-year-old and would have defended such music. Now, I think, I know better.

There is a fine line between inspiration and indulgence and The Necks instinctively tread that tightrope, such is their bravery in what they are trying to do. You have to admire their daring. Yet, there will always be times when one loses one’s balance and falls off and this performance came to a clattering conclusion that left this listener feeling slightly bruised and bemused. I’m just glad nothing was broken.

Red O'Hand

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_{Topless Ukraine activist grabs Euro Cup}

(Reuters) - A Ukrainian women's rights activist stripped to the waist and seized the Euro-2012 soccer trophy while it was on public display in Kiev on Saturday in a protest against the forthcoming month-long championship.

The young woman, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachik, is a member of the Kiev-based Femen women's rights group which believes the Euro-2012 soccer tournament being played in Ukraine next month will encourage sex tourism.

Kovpachik strode up to the silver, 60 centimeter (two feet) high trophy, which was on display as a tourist attraction in an open air exhibition in central Kiev, ostensibly to be photographed alongside it like hundreds of other sightseers.

But she then pulled down her red T-shirt to reveal the words "Fuck Euro 2012" scrawled on her torso. As she grabbed hold of the cup with both hands, she was seized by security guards, who appeared to have had advanced warning of the protest.

They covered her with a sheet and took her off to a waiting police car.

The protest appeared to be the first action in a campaign against the championship by Femen which regularly stages bare-breast protests in Ukraine - and sometimes beyond - to highlight what it sees as political injustice, social abuse and the exploitation of women in Ukraine.